Signs of Termites: A Guide for Southern California Homeowners

Nobody in Temecula or Murrieta sees the termites eating their house. What they see is a door that started sticking in October, paint that lifted on a window sill for no reason, or a baseboard that caved when the vacuum hit it. Those are the signs, and by the time they show, a colony has been feeding for a while. Both of Southern California's main termites, the western drywood and the western subterranean termite, leave their own clues, and UC IPM's Pest Notes on each are the reference we follow here.

Below are the 8 signs in the order you're most likely to find them, what each one says about which termite you have, a room-by-room walk you can do in half an hour with a flashlight and a screwdriver, and what to do with what you find. If it's fall and you're seeing winged insects, our drywood swarming post goes deeper on that. If it just rained, the subterranean swarm post does.

What are the first signs of termites in a Southern California home?

The first sign is usually one of three: a small pile of pellets under a window frame or along a garage wall, a pencil-wide mud tube running up the stem wall or a garage post, or a scatter of matching, veined wings on a sill after a warm afternoon. Each points to a different termite. Pellets mean drywood termites, which live inside the wood and push their droppings out through tiny holes. Mud tubes mean subterranean termites, which live in the soil and build covered tunnels to reach the wood, as UC IPM describes. Wings mean a swarm happened, and the weather tells you which species: dry daytime flights in summer and fall for drywood, flights right after rain for subterranean. The other five signs, hollow wood, blistered paint, pinholes, sticking doors and live swarmers, come later or need you to go looking. Two signs in the same part of the house, say pellets and pinholes under the same window, are a strong reason to have that spot inspected.

What termite droppings look like

Drywood termite droppings, which inspectors call frass or pellets, look like a small heap of coarse sand, poppy seeds or fine coffee grounds, tan to dark brown and sometimes mixed in color. Under a magnifier each pellet is a tiny hard grain with six concave sides and ridges, which is the feature UC IPM uses to identify them. You'll find them in a neat cone-shaped pile directly below a pinhole in the wood, because the termites kick them out of the gallery to keep it clean. Common spots in Murrieta and Menifee homes: the sill below a window, the floor under a garage door jamb, the top of a patio cover beam, a bathroom window frame and, in the attic, the insulation below a rafter. Here's the test. Sweep the pile up, mark the spot and check again in a week. A new pile means an active colony directly above it. Sawdust from carpenter bees or a drill looks fluffy and irregular by comparison, and ant debris has bits of insects in it.

What mud tubes look like and where they appear

A mud tube is a covered tunnel about the width of a pencil, made of soil, saliva and droppings, that subterranean termites build so they can travel from the ground to the wood without drying out. UC IPM describes them as the signature of subterranean activity. On a slab home in Temecula or Wildomar they run up the outside of the stem wall under the stucco weep screed, up a garage post or door jamb where it meets the concrete, along a plumbing pipe at the point it enters through the slab, and inside the garage along the base of the wall behind stored boxes. On a raised house in Fallbrook or Old Town they climb the piers and foundation walls in the crawl space. A fresh tube is damp and dark. Leave it intact for the inspector, for the reasons we give further down. An old, dry, empty tube means past activity, and that still matters, because the colony that built it is in the soil nearby.

Why you find wings but no insects

A swarmer drops its wings within hours of landing, then disappears into a crack, gets eaten by a lizard or a bird, or dies. The wings stay. A heap of matching wings on a window sill, in a bathtub, in a web near the porch light, or scattered on the garage floor means a flight happened, and that flight came from a mature colony in or close to the house. The weather and the season tell you which one. Drywood swarmers fly in daylight in summer and fall. Subterranean swarmers fly after rain, in spring and in fall. Before you sweep them up, bag a pinch of wings and note the room, the window and the date. If the wings are all one size they're termite wings. If they come in two sizes they're ant wings, which is a different conversation. Either way, call us at (951) 535-4220 and mention the sample. Tyler Williams, our termite inspector, will want to see it.

How can I tell termite damage from water damage?

They look alike on the surface, so the inside of the wood settles it. Both can blister paint, swell a door frame and leave a baseboard soft. Water damage is darker, stained in a tide line, soft all the way through, and near something wet: a leaking shower pan, a hose bib, a sprinkler that hits the stucco, a roof edge. Termite damage is layered. Press a screwdriver into it and the surface gives way to a honeycomb of galleries that follow the grain, with thin walls of wood left between them. Subterranean galleries are packed with soil and look muddy. Drywood galleries are clean and smooth and connect to the pinholes where the pellets come out. A knuckle tap helps too. Healthy wood sounds solid, water-damaged wood sounds dull, and termite-eaten wood sounds hollow or papery. In practice the two problems travel together, because the leak that soaked a sill plate is also what drew the subterranean termites to it, so finding one is a reason to look for the other.

Which rooms to check first

Start outside, then go to the three places termites use most. Outside, walk the foundation line with a flashlight and look at the stem wall, the weep screed, each garage post and door jamb, every spot where wood touches soil, the fascia and eaves, the window and door trim and the patio cover. In the garage, pull the stored boxes off the walls and look at the base of the drywall, the bottom of the door frame and any exposed studs. In the attic, check the rafters near each vent and the insulation below for pellets. In the bathrooms and kitchen, open the cabinets under each sink and look at the wood for staining, swelling or pellets, and tap the baseboard behind the toilet. At the windows, run a finger along each interior sill for pellets and wings and press the frame corners with a screwdriver. Bring your phone and photograph anything odd along with where it was. On a typical single-story in Menifee this takes half an hour. If the house ever goes into escrow, that record is useful to whoever writes the report.

What to do when you find a sign

Leave it alone, record it and call. An intact mud tube tells an inspector it's live and where it goes. An undisturbed pellet pile shows the kick-out hole above it. Spraying the area with a hardware-store product kills nothing inside the wood or the soil and scatters the evidence. Record it with a photo, the room and the date. Then ring Jenni at (951) 535-4220 with what you found and where. The inspection and estimate are free, unless the inspection is for a home sale or refinance, where the inspection and report are $99. Tyler Williams looks at the accessible areas of the whole house, because the spot you found isn't always the only one, and he separates active infestation from old damage and from the conditions that invited it. If treatment is needed, Dylan Reed handles it, and if the house needs tenting, a subcontractor does the fumigation for us. In the meantime, fix the easy things: redirect the sprinkler off the stucco, get the firewood off the ground and fix the drip under the sink. None of that treats a colony. All of it removes a reason for the next one.

Why new homes in French Valley and Winchester get termites too

Termites don't check the build date. A new stucco home in French Valley, Winchester or the newer tracts of Menifee still has a wood-framed attic, wood fascia, wood trim and a slab with plumbing penetrations, and it sits on soil where subterranean termites live. Drywood swarmers from the older neighborhood up the road or from a mature tree can reach a house in its first fall. Two things make new homes a little different. The wood is painted and sealed and the grade is mostly correct, which helps. But the landscaping is new, which means heavy watering, mulch heaped against the stucco above the weep screed and planters built against the stem wall, all of which UC IPM lists among the conditions that draw subterranean termites to a foundation. So the checks are the same as for an older home. Keep the exterior wood sealed, keep soil and mulch below the weep screed, keep sprinklers off the walls, and have the house looked at now and then instead of only when something shows up.